Driving the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Larson, who won the first Cup race of his career last August at MIS, covered the two-mile distance in 35.616 seconds (202.156 mph), edging Truex (202.117 mph) for the top starting spot by a scant .007 seconds.

“We made some good adjustments there for that final round,” said Larson, who earned his first Coors Light Pole Award at Michigan, his second of the season and the third of his career. “I was pretty good in the first round and a little bit tight in the second round. They went a step further on freeing it up for the final round and the Cars 3 Chevy drove good.

“I could tell by the RPM and the engine it was going to be a pretty good lap, so I was happy about that to get the pole after winning here last year. So, hopefully, we can keep it going. So far, it’s been a really good weekend leading in (opening) practice and then getting the quick time here. So, yeah, it’s an exciting weekend, and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Truex went all-out on his lap in the money round, with his car bottoming out and trailing a stream of sparks though the corners at each end of the track.

“You’re just hoping the tires stick enough that it doesn’t turn you sideways or make you get tight or whatever,” Truex said of the lap. “It really feels like the car rides really rough. That’s really all it is. It doesn’t upset the car too much, if it’s just light contact.

“You’ve got to get it down to go fast, and the guys did a good job of getting it down—that’s for sure.”

As fast as his final lap was, Truex will start second for the third consecutive race, having lost poles at Dover and Pocono to Kyle Busch.

Martin Truex Jr. is arguably having his best season this year in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota has notched two victories, along with five Top 5 and 10 Top 10 finishes so far this season.

On Friday, the New Jersey native still was unable to reach that feat as he qualified second for the third-straight week.

“It’s actually good,” Truex said about his qualifying efforts. “We have a really good qualifying average this year, which has been good. I think it’s the best we’ve ever done as far as consistency — being up front in qualifying. I think if you’re second three weeks in a row and you’re just this close, you know you’re right there, so I feel good about that and we’ll get a couple poles later in the year.”

With 584 points, Truex holds a one point lead over Kyle Larson for the top position in the MENCS points standings.

Truex also leads all MENCS drivers with 18 playoff points, three more than Jimmie Johnson, who has the second most playoff points.

“For us, it’s just about trying to do the best we can every single week,” Truex said. “I feel like it’s been a good season. We’ve been fast, we’ve had speed all year and we’ve really been consistent, which is good. Come playoff time, you want to be able to run up front, lead laps, have a shot at winning each and every week. So for us, it’s been good. We’re getting a lot of stage points, which is going to be key and just trying to be upfront consistently. That’s what we’re trying to do and it’s been working out so far.”

Entering Sunday’s race at Michigan, Truex has led at least one lap at 10 of the 14 tracks this season for a total of 876 laps. The consistency adds motivation for the 36-year-old driver.

“The more success you have, the more you want,” he said. “So running good is constant motivation to come to the track each weekend and show up and just be ready to give it everything you have and try to get those wins because they’re so hard to come by.”

“It’s a little disappointing,” Truex said. “I thought we had it there, but Kyle went out late and beat us. But, really, you’re never shocked. It’s really hard to put a perfect lap together. There’s always something you could do a little bit better, and our lap in the third round was the same way… We picked up a good chunk in the third round, but, obviously, Larson picked up a tiny bit more.”

Clint Bowyer matched his best qualifying effort of the season and will start third on Sunday. Kyle Busch qualified fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin, Pocono winner Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Jamie McMurray.

Kevin Harvick, who was fastest in each of the first two rounds of Friday’s time trials, fell off the pace in the third round and will start 11th.

“We just got really loose there in the last round,” Harvick said. “We were really good the first two, but something changed. I like the speed in race trim. We have some work to do for Sunday.”

Chase Elliott, who will start 10th, was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver to make the final round, as seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson was bumped out of the top 12 by Matt Kenseth on the last run of the second round.